12 March 2007
A pair of teenage Jewish twins from Kyrgyzstan have been released from detention by the British Home Office for the second time while they await a high court decision on whether they can remain in the UK. Karina and Kamila Kaya, 18, were allowed to return to Birmingham last week from a detention center, in the latest stage of their prolonged battle to avoid deportation as failed asylum seekers. A high court judge will now have the final say on whether the girls can stay in the country. The two claim that their parents were both murdered in their home country. If the judge refuses, a previous decision by the government to reject their asylum applications will stand. The Home secretary has judged that the girls would not face the imminent threat of persecution if they return to Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, thus ruling out political asylum in Britain.
UK authorities rejected their asylum application in January, shortly after the girls had turned 18, but ministers halted their deportation after Israel announced that it would grant them refuge, but first needed a few weeks to process their paperwork. However, having been released from the detention center, the girls then turned down Israel's offer in a bid to battle through the courts to stay in the United Kingdom and, last month, were returned to the center again to await deportation, only to be released last week when their case was taken to judicial review.